Thoughts on Indian and global advertising from an Australian digital strategist working in Mumbai.

Jan 9, 2016

If you think Indian fairness cream ads are evil, you have to see this.

Coming from a culture where we prize tanned skin as ‘healthy’ I have always found the Indian/Asian use of fairness creams to be very depressing. The fact that the cosmetics industry laps this up and hands us a barrage of advertising that shows dark skinned people to be unconfident, unsuccessful and unattractive, is even sadder.

While Indian fairness cream ads are bad enough, this Thai commercial really takes the cake.

The ad shows an actress talking about how competitive the industry is and how, if she doesn’t keep up her investment in maintaining her white skin, she will fade away. As she says this, her skin tone goes from light to black, much to her disgust.

We then get the wonderful tagline: “You just need to be white to win.”

Thankful, Thai people protested and the ad was pulled down by the company, who apologised by saying “”Our company did not have any intention to convey discriminatory or racist messages. What we intended to convey was that self-improvement in terms of personality, appearance, skills and professionality is crucial.”

So basically, #sorrynotsorry. Sorry we offended you, but lightening your skin is ‘crucial’.